The bronze medallist at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is still being closely marked, however, by Australia’s Matthew Wearn.

But Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus dropped down from third to sixth place, to be replaced by New Zealand's Andrew McKenzie, who is just two points behind the leaders with five points.

Tom Burton of Australia is three points behind the New Zealander on eight points, and behind him four sailors are tied on nine points - Michael Beckett of Britain, Kontides, Philipp Buhl of Germany and Jesper Stalheim of Sweden.

Britain's defending champion Nick Thompson remains well off the pace, however, dropping from 20th to 27th place with a total of 23 points.

The early leader in the women's laser radial event, Maxime Jonker of The Netherlands, still leads with three points, but her compatriot, defending champion and Olympic gold medallist Marit Bouwmeester, moved up from sixth to second with seven points.

Britain's Hannah Snellgrove is third with eight points, with Emma Plasschaert of Belgium and Tuula Tenkanen fourth and fifth overall with 10 and 11 points respectively.

The laser radial men's class is still headed by Nik Pletikos of Slovenia, on eight points, with Poland's Aleksander Arian second on 10 points and Federico Tocchi of Italy third on the same number.

Poland's defending champion Marcin Rudawksi remains in fourth place, one point adrift.

This week’s event, which involves 330 sailors from 48 nations, is a key test before the Sailing World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, in July and August.

Racing continues tomorrow.